I have had a red, swollen, painful, hardened symptom at the base joint of my left big toe for a very long time. I never brought it to any doctor's attention, kind of forgot, due to I was dealing with so many issues and medical conditions.

I finally went to the podiatrist. She said it was arthritis. It was actually verry bad.
But the other doctors, rheumatologist included had never taken a complete look. I do have arthritis othervise diagnosed before, and now it all falls in to the picture.
I was already on a high dose Prednisone treatment for my other autoimmune/vasculitis condition.
This really helped my toe also. But now I am off the Prednisone, and the pain is back.